'Godspell' comes to Milford Theater

Friday

Oct 25, 2013 at 2:00 AM

Bill Thomas played both John the Baptist and Judas in "Godspell" for seven nights in the late 1970s, but he has long since ascended to directing, along with his wife, Melissa. Their company, City Stage Theater Arts, will perform "Godspell" tonight and Saturday and Sunday at Milford Theater, with Melissa directing and choreographing, Bill doing artistic direction.

Jessica Cohen

Bill Thomas played both John the Baptist and Judas in "Godspell" for seven nights in the late 1970s, but he has long since ascended to directing, along with his wife, Melissa. Their company, City Stage Theater Arts, will perform "Godspell" tonight and Saturday and Sunday at Milford Theater, with Melissa directing and choreographing, Bill doing artistic direction.

Tim Webster, who grew up in Matamoras, and now lives in Brooklyn, plays Jesus in his last days in a succession of parables enacted in multiple styles, including pantomime and vaudeville, with an assortment of music, celebrating spirituality over materialism.

Three of nine other main cast members come from Port Jervis. Eight offstage backup players are area high school students. The cast was the inspiration for choosing to perform "Godspell."

"They were such a good fit for the 10 roles, with their talent and voices," Bill Thomas said. "It's the Gospel according to Matthew updated for today, with lots of singing and dancing, New Age themes, improvisation, and a little audience participation."

Someone out there will end up onstage.

"We add and subtract from the original, make reference to what's going on in the world, and the cast brings their own ideas to the show," said Melissa Thomas. "People will remember the song 'Day by Day.' And a great singer does 'Bless the Lord My Soul.' It's Diana Ross and the Supremes-ish rock 'n' roll."

Bill Thomas said that since the days when he played John and Judas, "the music has been rearranged and updated, with tighter harmonies."

He had gravitated to New York for summer stock from Connecticut, where he went to Hartt College of Music and the University of Hartford.

"I liked the dramatic singing and acting I did as Tevye in 'Fiddler on the Roof' and in 'Don Quixote' and 'Man of La Mancha,'" he said. "Out of 30 or 40 leading roles, those were most compelling to me."

He had been acting since he was 10, and Melissa has danced since she was 4 — ballet, jazz, tap, musical theater. She came from "east of Cleveland," and they met as Gilbert and Sullivan players at Symphony Space in New York. They did "Ruddigore" and "The Pirates of Penzance" together.

Melissa said that when they decided to live in the country, "we found Port Jervis after looking all over for years. We liked the area, the river and the trains."

Previously they worked with Presby Theater in Port Jervis, where they performed in a church. They built their own stages to perform at Erie Trackside and the Riverview Inn.